Ukraine

The European Union was set to press U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday to help reduce Europe's reliance on Russian energy by exporting U.S. natural gas, as relations with Moscow chill over its intervention in Ukraine.

By Rainer Buergin & Patrick Donahue

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that European nations looking to throw Ukraine a financial lifeline could use Greece’s bailout as a blueprint.

"The world is safer and more just" when the European Union and the United States stand together, US President Barack Obama stated.

Obama is on an official trip to Brussels, the first such visit to the EU's political heart since 2005.

Britain urgently needs shale gas to reduce energy dependence from Russia, its PM David Cameron said Wednesday.

The Guardian quotes him as saying that the country has a duty to step up gas production.

Cameron described Ukraine's crisis as a "wake up call" for the possible repercussions that reliance on Russian gas could have on Europe.

The unusual timing of the round of talks, while Macedonian politicians are focused on the April presidential and general elections and while Greece is gearing up for May local polls, has prompted observers to suspect a link with the crisis in Ukraine.

"Serbs won't let Bosnia join sanctions against Russia"

BANJA LUKA -- The Serb entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina will not allow this country to join the EU and U.S. sanctions against Russia, RS President Milorad Dodik has said.

"EU understands Serbia's complex ties with Russia"

BRUSSELS -- The European Union has some understanding for "complex relations" between Serbia and Russia, the Beta news agenxy quoted its European Commission sources.

BNP Paribas, France's largest bank by market capitalization, has announced plans to pull back from Ukraine.

Its chief financial executive Lars Machenil however added BNP does not mull leaving other countries to the east of Europe, such as Turkey and Poland, website Investor.bg reports.

BELGRADE - The Ukrainian embassy in Serbia has issued an apology over a "technical error" in a promotional video in which Serbia is omitted from the map of Europe, stressing that this in no way reflects neither the personal views of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk nor Ukraine's official position, the Serbian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russian speakers had been threatened in Crimea - and dismissed any analogy between Western intervention in Kosovo in 1999 and Russia’s recent takeover of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.